In recent years considerable attention has been given to the preparation of alcoholic beer having a reduced calorie content as compared to regular commercial beers. One method of preparing such a beer is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,379,534 wherein a carbohydrate splitting enzyme, amyloglucosidase, is used in various stages of the process. The process is said to result in a beer having substantially no dextrins or less than a major part of dextrins normally present in commercial beer. It is also alleged that such a beer containing little or no dextrins has a significantly lower caloric content than beers heretofore made with the same alcoholic content. A significant disadvantage of this beer, however, resides in the fact that the added enzymes are not inactivated during the usual pasteurization of the beer and continue to react in the bottle. Enzyme activity may result in a continual, undesirable flavor change in the product after it is packaged and in the hands of the consumer.
Another marked disadvantage of beer produced with amyloglucosidase enzymes is the processing problem encountered when such a beer is inadvertently mixed with normally produced beer. When this occurs, the normally produced beer changes rapidly in flavor and continues to do so, even after packaging and pasteurization.